Chapter 52

The Pace cousins convened their own press conference to counter the BLM activities.

“My name is Leon Pace. I run a business called Sparkles, which is one of the hottest clubs in town. Everyone can tell you how popular we are.

Recently, Black Lives Matter has chosen to target us. But I would like to add a letter to their acronym. Black Businessmen Lives Matter too! We are the ones who build, invest, take the risks, and hire employees. And I would like to ask my BLM employees, where were the white folk when you needed jobs? Did the lawyers or doctors or media types hire you? No! Black businessmen like me are the ones who put food on your table. How can you turn on us? We are paying fair wages and letting you work at an establishment that has long lines of customers waiting to get in every night. If the conditions are so terrible, why do the customers keep coming?”

Tasha Fields stepped forward to give the BLM answer.

“I would like to be heard here! You talk about fair wages. We see the truckloads of cash you are making! Do you think we protest white privilege only to replace it with Black privilege? NO! You talk about the whites. There’s a lot of middle-class white employees who get nice homes and cars with their wages. That’s the kind of fairness BLM is marching for.

Furthermore, I don’t believe the honest businessman act you are shoveling. My husband Damon was your friend, and he is still missing after over a year! Where is your effort to find his killer? I’ll tell you why—because you were involved!”

This was not going the way Leon intended.

“Those charges were dropped. I did nothing to harm Damon!”

“I don’t believe it. You haven’t given me or the children one ounce of sympathy for Damon. No help at all. I’ve gotten the cold shoulder, and I think I know why. You’ve got a guilty conscience and will not face me!”

Mark grabbed Leon and pulled him away. There was no point in a shouting match, and things were going badly in any case.

When they got back inside, Leon had still not calmed down.

“That bitch. What a disaster!”

“I know. We need to regroup in a big way.”

“Yeah.”

Across town, the FBI agents could not conceal the grins on their faces.

“I guess guilty people don’t give good press conferences.”

“Wow. Looks like Leon is starting to crack under the pressure.”

“You think something will break loose?”

“We can only hope. The Brownling information is interesting, but not enough for an indictment.”

“What about Simon?”

“Seems like a cardboard copy of Vandenburg. Aristocratic upbringing, refined manner, and contacts with influence. Nothing actionable yet, but we will keep looking into him.”

“The organization has plenty of talent on hand for replacements.”

“So far.”